Exploring Central Australia: Fieldwork

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2012:

On Campus seminars and field trip to central Australia.

240 hours

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None

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Students who have passed Exploring Central Australia with the codes 102-005, 670-308 or AUST30003 are not permitted to enrol in this subject

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Exploring Central Australia is an interdisciplinary subject based on an intensive field trip to Central Australia. The subject prompts academic inquiry in the context of a first-hand encounter with the environment and cultures of the region. It focuses on the contested histories and contemporary realities of race and culture in the town of Alice Springs, and also explores the 'meanings' of Uluru for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This subject is taught through a combination of seminars at the University and an intensive field trip (at additional cost) to Central Australia, which includes the opportunity to learn from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous inhabitants of the region. Students will be encouraged to produce research and writing that investigates issues, challenges stereotypes, and draws upon their fieldwork observations and interactions.

Students who successfully complete this subject should:

• Appreciate the range and diversity of representations of central Australia across visual, filmic and written texts
• Comprehend the experiences of Aboriginal and non-indigenous Australia in central Australia, and the political, social and cultural implications of these experiences.
• Build an understanding of Central Australia through seminars, a fieldtrip, and independent and collaborative research.

one 1500 word writing exercise 15% (due before semester break before field trip), one 2500 word journal 25% (due after the field trip); one 500 word research proposal 10% (due after the fieldtrip); one 3000 word research essay 40% (due at the end of semester during examination period) and a class presentation of 500 words 10% (due during the semester).

Hurdle requirement: Students must attend all the seminars and the field trip in order to pass this subject. Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day; after five working days, no late assessment will be marked. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

Readings for this subject will be made available online through the LMS site.

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

• Research: through competent use of the library and other information sources, and the definition of areas of inquiry and methods of research
• Critical thinking and analysis: through recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion, and by determining the strength of an argument
• Thinking in theoretical terms: through lectures, tutorial discussion, essay writing and engagement in the methodologies of the humanities and social sciences
• Understanding of social, ethical and cultural context: through the contextualisation of judgments, developing a critical self-awareness, being open to new ideas and possibilities and by constructing an argument
• Communicating knowledge intelligibly and economically: through essay writing and tutorial discussion

Please note that this subject has an off campus component and is taught at levels 2 and 3.